In its July 27 brief asking US District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Analisa Torres to toss Netburn’s orders, the agency argues that the speech didn’t reflect SEC policy, but rather what advice his division would give the agency.
Although the SEC maintains that it isn’t bound by Hinman’s speech, it says that Hinman’s remarks still provided “meaningful information” to the public about the division’s approach to regulating digital assets. The communications surrounding the speech therefore ought to be protected by the deliberative process privilege, it says.
In other words, the agency would like to have it both ways, which Netburn has said pointedly, more than once, that it cannot do. Either the speech was intended to reflect agency policy, or it wasn’t, Netburn said.
Source: Ripple Discovery Would Chill All Agency Debate, SEC Says (1)
